Vontaze Burfict calls it a night after hamstring injury

He reportedly agreed to a new contract, although it hasn’t been signed yet, and then was waylaid by a stomach virus that kept him out of practice. He recovered enough to play in Sunday night’s game against the Cardinals, but now there’s a new health concern.

Burfict left the game after one defensive series with a hamstring injury. There’s no word on severity yet, although Burfict probably wasn’t slated to play in Thursday night’s preseason finale so there’s a couple of weeks for him to heal up before the season opener.

Defensive tackle Geno Atkins made his preseason debut for the Bengals, but joined Burfict on the bench for the second defensive series. There’s been no announced injury for Atkins, who may have just been on a limited snap count in his first game action after last year’s torn ACL.

Neither absence hurt the Bengals defense all that much. Cornerback Terence Newman picked off a Carson Palmer pass and returned it for a touchdown to put Cincinnati up 7-0 in the first quarter.

UPDATE 8:33 p.m. ET: Atkins was back on the field following Newman’s touchdown.

23 Years….Ohhhh 23 years. That must feel like fore…..wait a minute it is forever. 23 years means that the rookies on every NFL team was either not born or just born the last time the Bengals won a playoff game. That’s the “story” of your franchise. Ouch!

“23 Years….Ohhhh 23 years. That must feel like fore…..wait a minute it is forever. 23 years means that the rookies on every NFL team was either not born or just born the last time the Bengals won a playoff game. That’s the “story” of your franchise. Ouch!”

And what has your team done lately? Oh yeah that’s right. Get kicked out of the playoffs by that franchise. I’m betting you weren’t even in diapers when the steel curtain won those titles almost half a century ago.